Be forewarned: The writer of this blog is an extremely cynical, snarky, pro-US, secular, libertarian, disgruntled sandmonkey. If this is your cup of tea, please enjoy your stay here. If not, please sod off

Monday, November 21, 2005

Round 2

*The Sandmonkey news show theme plays*
Welcome to the second round of our parliamentarian elections. I am Sandmonkey, and I will be your host for the evening. So far we know that the MB has won 14 seats, which brings their total to 48 seats, and are likely to go into a run-off elections in 4 more, which if they win, will bring their total to 50 seats, 3 X what they had last elections. Once they hit 60 seats it will be really hard to decline them a party, and once they hit 65 seats they will be able to field their own presidential candidate for the next presidential elections. Oh Joy.
But you are not here for who won, you are here to know about the violence, or as the late Sadat liked to call it "The Fangs of Democracy victims". And you bet there was victims. Here is what's going on for your viewing pleasure.
Arrests and other forms of intimidation:
Police arrested about 470 activists from the officially banned Brotherhood during and ahead of voting on Sunday. Police and armed gangs blocked polling stations in some Brotherhood strongholds, witnesses said.
[...]
Some 2,000 voters were blocked from casting ballots in the city when police cordoned off polling stations before closing time, said Hishmat's nephew, Mohammed, who works as one of his campaign workers.
Attacks or as I like to call it "Civil violence" were availible there as well:The usually peaceful Mediterranean city of Alexandria was the scene of pitched battles between supporters of rival candidates, as clans fought with sticks, knives and guns.
"Who can hit the hardest?" was the headline of Egypt's leading independent daily Al-Masri Al-Yom, which carried front page pictures of men and teenagers wielding swords and even a candidate holding a handgun.
[...]
Widespread violence marred Sunday's voting as clashes broke out nationwide between Brotherhood supporters, ruling party supporters and police. At least one person was killed in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria and police used tear gas to break up rioting in the Nile delta.
[...]
In a report released late Sunday, the independent Egyptian Organization for Human Rights described "ascending violence and thuggery" by NDP supporters against Brotherhood candidates and their backers. Voters were being intimidated in both Alexandria and Ismailia, both strongholds of the Brotherhood, the group said.
[...]
The Brotherhood spokesman in Alexandria, Ali Abdel Fattah, said men had opened fire on the group's backers in a downtown polling station, killing one man and wounding several other people. But that reported death was never confirmed.
In the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, witnesses said a Brotherhood candidate's brother was shot and wounded by the cousin of an NDP candidate at one polling station. Four other people were wounded in fighting in the city, according to Ismailia's health department.
Deaths:
There are 4 Deaths reported, but only 2 here. So if 2 more people win up dead, you heard it here first.
Election monitoring groups said armed NDP supporters had threatened and intimidated voters on Sunday. One Brotherhood activist was stabbed in Alexandria, a monitoring group said.
[...]One man was shot dead in Alexandria by thugs trying to intimidate voters. It was not clear who they were working for.
And of course the Official response for all of this anarchy is:
The Interior Ministry blamed most of the violence on the Brotherhood and said the police were neutral.
Naturally!
So, as you all can see, things have drastically detriorated compared to stage 1 of the election, and given that stage 3 is going to be in Suez, Port Said, Sinai and other areas that the NDP is really unpopular in, this should only be a harbinger of things to come. There should be more violence, more deaths, and more wins to the MB. This should scare every christian in Egypt to run to the NDP and continue to eat shit while kissing their asses because the big bad MB boogeyman may get them, and it would serve the interests of the government in terms to their relations with the US, because "Look where democracy is taking the country!" and everybody will arrive to an impasse and nothing will get resolved. Egypt, baby, thy future is bleak.
That is all for now. Now, if you excuse me, I have to go bang my head to my desk some more.
Have a great day and a pleasant tommorow.
*The Sandmonkey show news theme plays mixed with the sound of banging *

3 Comments:

No shit, swords!?! Must be a cultural thing. Bring it on. How about a mace or even a trident? That's a nasty picture, an angry mob brandishing a bunch of tridents. Naw, probably haven't got those lying about the house. Just grab your sword and go—that's my motto.ROTFLMAO